This year’s bald eagle nesting season in New Jersey has begun to wind down “as chicks take their first flights and steps to independence,” said Conserve Wildlife Foundation biologist Larissa Smith. Last week, she explained, the Bald Eagle Project – managed by CWF in partnership with the N.J. Department of Environmental Protection’s Endangered and Nongame Species Program – had tallied a total of 61 fledglings out of the 351 chicks reported in nests throughout the state.

“This number increases each day as Eagle Project nest monitors report on fledging,” Smith remarked.